ADDICTIVE NEW ADVENTURE FOR THE GEEK IN US ALL.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

Initially, you get the sense that ``Heroes'' creator Tim Kring has over-thought the premise of his new show, a sort of ``X-Men''-type adventure about people with superpowers.

Kring's kitchen-sink approach to storytelling (comic-book-lettered title cards up alongside portentous voice-over narration) seems way too clever.

It sneaks up on you

But be careful: As details of Kring's sprawling cast of characters' misadventures quickly unfurl, you may go from rolling your eyes to being hooked without even realizing it.

Even after three episodes, most of the ``Heroes'' don't even know the others exist, so dire are their own predicaments. So far, the most engaging character is Hiro (Masi Oka), who, by concentrating really hard, can shatter the rules of physics: He can stop time; he can teleport himself to the other side of the globe. And his powers delight him.

Other characters are more conflicted by their abilities. Isaac (Santiago Cabrera) is an artist whose work predicts, with unnerving accuracy, the future. (He has illustrated a comic book about Hiro, which Hiro follows assiduously.) Try as high-school student Claire (Hayden Panettiere) might, she can't seem to inflict any enduring wounds upon her body 7/8 she simply tucks her ribs back into her torso, and the gash heals instantly. Matt (Greg Grunberg) is an L.A. cop who can read minds.

Naturally, one of the ``Heroes'' is a down-on-her-luck stripper (Ali Larter) whose power seems ill-defined but can have devastating effects on anyone who wants to rough her up. Moony Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) pesters his aggressive politician brother Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) that he thinks he can fly; Nathan, for any number of reasons, wants Peter to shut up already.

Sanity in question

These, and others, are being sought by Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy), an Indian scientist who doubts his own sanity as he tries to prove his late father's theory of a genetic revolution.

And, of course, they're pursued by bad guys behind some big conspiracy to destroy the planet. Hiro and Isaac have already seen the future, and it involves a mushroom cloud.

Kling's plotting is intricate and filled with nice bits of misdirection, surprises and jaw-dropping cliffhangers (particularly episode three). But he does overreach. The narration (from Mohinder's father's book) is new-age nonsense; the show would lose nothing were it scratched.

The sophisticate in me wants to resist ``Heroes,'' but the geek in me refuses to allow that to happen. Here's guessing a lot of viewers will enjoy the mind-bending calisthenics of ``Heroes.''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

HEROES - Three stars

What: The world needs saving. Luckily, there's a disparate group of strangers up to the task.

Where: NBC (Channel 4).

When: 9 tonight.

In a nutshell: Addictive action-adventure.